Creating father-inclusive health and social services: one-day course

16 December 2011

The government’s Healthy Child programme says:

“The contribution that fathers make to their children’s development, health and wellbeing is important, but services do not do enough to recognise or support them. Research shows that a father’s behaviour, beliefs and aspirations can profoundly influence the health and wellbeing of both mother and child in positive and negative ways.

Maternity and child health services are used to working mainly with mothers, and this has an impact on their ability to engage with fathers. Fathers should be routinely invited to participate in child health reviews, and should have their needs assessed.”

Services should, for example:

Support mothers and fathers to provide sensitive and attuned parenting, in particular during the first months and years of life

Support strong couple relationships and stable positive relationships within families, in accordance with The Children’s Plan (DCSF, 2007)

Ensure that contact with the family routinely involves and supports fathers, including non-resident fathers

Support the transition to parenthood, especially for first-time mothers and fathers.

Our course shows you how to develop and implement a whole-team approach to engaging with fathers. We are the lead organisation on father-inclusive practice in the UK, and we can train your staff – and/or staff from local agencies with whom you will need to work if you are to fulfil government requirements – to deliver this agenda.

The format for the course reflects the national policy agenda and our extensive knowledge of what works.

Why we need fairer policies for mums and dads: Guardian video

FI on Twitter

Schools – boost your results by becoming a FRED provider
‘When I see my children at the weekend they say, “We don’t want to go to McDonald’s – can we read stories instead?”.’
You probably already know how important dads can be to their children’s learning – and if you don’t, you can find out here.